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Dancing about an Architecture Exhibition

Someone—Elvis Costello? Frank Zappa? it’s up for dispute—once said “talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” It’s meant to sound nonsensical, I guess, but then again Goethe famously said “architecture is frozen music.” So I’ve always had the impression that dancing about architecture was a quite reasonable thing to do. Anyone who’s heard Talking Heads’ “Don’t Worry about the Government” would surely agree!

This is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to songs about architecture and design. Unfortunately I was limited by (a) what I had in my own collection and (b) what iTunes actually carries. I wanted to include Harry Nilsson’s “Good Old Desk” and John Hartford’s excellent “In Tall Buildings”; we also got fantastic suggestions from many of our followers on Twitter, who suggested (among others) Adult’s “Dispassionate Furniture,” Jonathan Richman’s “Government Center,” and basically the entire oeuvre of Einstürzende Neubaten (translated: Collapsing New Buildings). I do want to thank those of you who suggested the Death Cab for Cutie, Ben Lee, and Cowboy Junkies tunes.